Professor of Early Christian History here, ask me anything!

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billsherman

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In a continued effort to keep me out of the News section, I’ve decided to post here and see if anyone has any questions.

I did this two years ago (Historian of Early Christianity waiting for school to start . . . ask me anything!), but I’m sure there are different people and/or different questions out there.

I work as a historian primarily in the areas of the historical Jesus and Early Christianity (which is broadly defined as pre-Nicaea). Feel free to ask anything about that period, and I’ll do my best to give you an honest historical answer. Do note, however, that I’m not a theologian. History is based on textual evidence, not tradition, faith, or belief.

You can also feel free to ask about what professors do, and how and why we do it. Every now and then someone takes a shot at professors around here. Now is your chance to try to understand us a little bit better.

For my own sanity, I like to let questions come in and then answer a bunch at once, so be patient if I take some time to get to you. I’ll answer everything that I can.
 
Is there a book that you’d recommend regarding early Church history for us non-Historians?
 
Do you follow orthodox Christian teachings or non-orthodox teachings from Protestantism or some other Christian sect?
 
On this thread, the OP would like some info:
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Hello again, @billsherman! Just the other day there was a discussion here about the size of the Christian population in the Roman Empire in the very earliest years of the Church. Rodney Stark presents an intriguing calculation in his book, The Rise of Christianity, based on a postulated average growth rate of 40 percent per decade. He thinks that in AD 40 the total number of Christians in the whole Empire may have been no more than 1,000, growing to 7,500 by the year 100 and to over 200,000 by 200. Do these figures make sense to you, in terms of the balance of probabilities? Has any other author proposed any alternative hypothesis?
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Fauken said:
Is there a book that you’d recommend regarding early Church history for us non-Historians?
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There are many good ones, but a lot really depends on your own interests and how deep you want to go. Unfortunately, though, most of the books for a popular audience are limited to just the life of Jesus, and generally don’t go much into the early Church.

If you are up for a lot of reading, James Dunn has a three volume series called “Christianity in the Making” that surveys the first century of Church history rather well. On the life of Jesus, as I mentioned, there are many choices. Dunn, again, has a few volumes, but there are also those written by E.P. Sanders, Bart Erhman, and John Dominic Crossan. Their books tend to be accessible and they publish frequently.

You should probably look into some reviews of them before going too deep though - they all have different approaches, and sometimes they are controversial. My suggestion shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement.

If you want to put in a lot more reading effort, you can look into the works of Raymond Brown and John Meier. I think they are accessible to a well read non-specialist. For the purposes of this forum, they are (or, in the tragic case of Brown, were) Catholic priests, and their books all bear the imprimatur - if that is important to you.

If there are any specific topics you are interested in, reply and I’ll try to get more specific!
 
Odilon said:
Do you follow orthodox Christian teachings or non-orthodox teachings from Protestantism or some other Christian sect?
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This may sound silly on a forum such as this, but I’m not terribly comfortable discussing my faith in public. It’s just too easy to be misunderstood or end up in a shouting match with someone (not you, of course!).

What I am happy to say though, is that my work as a historian does inform my faith in a variety of ways.
 
What do you think of the statement that not a single Christian perished in the siege and subsequent destruction of Jerusalem and Judea (67-70 AD)? is there enough historical and archaeological evidence to back this assertion?
 
Hello Professor,

Two questions, if I may…

Just curious if there is actual factual proof that St James made it all the way to Spain and to Santiago de Compostela. I’d like to believe he made it there but hope there is historical proof to bolster the tradition.

Also, is there documentation that definitively explains why Ephesus was chosen for the Church council to declare The Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of God in AD 431?

Thanks for your time.
 
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Have there been any studies on how many Christians were killed in early Rome?
 
Hello, @BartholomewB glad to see you around for a second crack at this!
BartholomewB said:
Do these figures make sense to you, in terms of the balance of probabilities?
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Yes, they make sense to me, and are broadly in line with other estimates out there. I spent a solid ten minutes trying to find an article I read many years ago that looked at the known growth rates of religious sects (remember, that’s how Christianity began) and extrapolated a growth rate of Christianity from that. It was interesting, although I don’t have the statistical background to critique it, and I can’t find it!

Certainly Christianity started very small and exploded over just a few centuries, so the growth rate had to average out to a pretty high number.
BartholomewB said:
Has any other author proposed any alternative hypothesis?
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Certainly, but since historians are generally allergic to numbers they are rarely backed up with much data. There is also the obvious problem that we have astoundingly few data points to go on. We know that there were a ton of Churches founded by Paul between 35 and 64, but we have no idea how many congregants they had. It cold have been 100 each, or it could have 4.
 
Do you think Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic preacher?

Do you agree or disagree with Mark being first and written about ~70AD? If not, what Gospel is first and about what year?

Do you accept that there are interpolations in the Gospels? Do you accept that Paul did not write some of the books attributed to him?

Thanks!
 
St. Matthew’s Gospel is the first in the order of time not St. Mark.
 
What was the name of the first church building that was called a Catholic church ?
 
I suppose, but wouldn’t that be kind of strange? Why would you bury someone in a tablecloth? I’m far from the world’s leading expert in First century Jewish burial customs, but I haven’t read any historian make that argument.

You should probably hunt down an art historian for that one. They might be able to give you something on the fabrics and such.

Historians, and you might not like this, are not interested in the Shroud because its provenance can’t be reliably traced before the 13th century or so. Additionally, if I remember correctly, the oldest historical record of it is actually a report of the confession of the guy who made it.

Believe as you wish, I have no interest in arguing over it, but those are the reasons why you won’t find historians using it in their work.
 
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